LEGAL POSITION OF INJURED PARTY IN THE ADHESION PROCEDURE

Abstract

The paper focuses on the legal position of the injured party in the procedure initiated by a complaint seeking to join a civil action to criminal proceedings. The civil claim,as an ancillary matter of civil nature joined to criminal proceedings, is known as an adhesion procedure and represents a specifi c combination of criminal and civil law. The aim of conducting such procedures is to observe the principle of judicial economy, but also to avoid the duplication of proceedings in the same matter. The term and the legal nature of the mechanism itself are discussed fi rst, followed by a thorough elaboration of some of its principal characteristics, especially as regards the question of the subjects of the procedure and the preconditions for conducting the procedure, in relation to the legal position of the injured party in the procedure, which should be more adequate bearing in mind both the legal solution and the practice of Croatian courts. For this reason, the authors propose that more attention should be given, when amending the legislation on criminal proceedings, to the injured party and the civil claim mechanism itself, which should be regulated in a more systematic manner considering its specifi c nature. In this regard, some contentious issues are presented in the paper, together with proposed solutions. The authors also underscore that the legal position of the injured party should be improved by granting to the injured parties all the rights that they would enjoy if they presented their claim in a lawsuit.